‘Bring us your dirt’ — Exposure Society “citizen science”

The International Society of Exposure Science, ISES, will hold its annual conference October 23-27 in Baltimore. The Society has invited all participants to bring dust samples for its Metals in Dust Samples Study. “A special ISES Metals in House Dust Study will analyze house dust samples supplied by the meeting attendees and report results at the meeting. The purpose of this investigation is twofold: (1) to compare metals from indoor dust samples collected from various parts of the world; and (2) to demonstrate the use of digital media to convey sample collection instructions to participants, who will view a short video or download written sample collection instructions.”

A similar approach could be used for collecting dust samples for microbial analysis. Why not?